About the Mint

Bilibin in metal16 марта 2018 года, 15:34

Bilibin in metal

Under the order of the Bank of Russia, the Saint Petersburg Mint struck two commemorative coins of the “Legends and fairy-tales of the peoples of Russia” series.
Using various technologies – laser matting, tampon printing, partial gilding, the color of Bilibin’s splendid illustrations was transmitted with the help of relief.
The first coin is “Zhar-ptitsa”; there is a relief image of the fairy bird flying up from the tree and Ivan the Tsarevich catching its feather.
“Frog Princess” is the name of the second coin; there are images of Ivan the Tsarevich and Frog Princess against the background of a forest and a lake. In the bottom of the coin, there are a swan and a frog holding an arrow.
Commemorative coins with the face value of three roubles are minted of sterling silver with the content of chemically pure metal of not less than 31.10 g. The mintage of the coins is 5000 pieces of each kind.
The obverse of both the coins is the same. On the mirror surface of the discus, the State Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation is depicted; above it, along the edging, there is a semi-circular inscription – “RUSSIAN FEDERATION” enframed with double diamonds on both sides. Under the Coat of Arms, there are the symbols of the precious metal and the standard of alloy on the left, the content of chemically pure metal and the trademark of the mint on the right side. In the bottom of the obverse, there are inscriptions – “BANK OF RUSSIA”, “3 ROUBLES” and “2017”.
Famous illustrations of an outstanding Russian artist Ivan Bilibin whose activity was closely connected to the Expedition of Storing State Paper (Goznak since 1919) formed the basis of the coin sketches.
Andrey Brynza, an artist of the Design Center of Goznak, worked upon the coin design.
“The artistic part of the task was to convert book illustrations into coin relief, preserving the spirit of Bilibin’s illustrations. Plain copying or transfer of the color images into the relief was excluded”, said the artist.
“Therefore, having deprived the original images of one of their main advantages – vibrant and recognizable Bilibin’s colors, we returned the artistic spirit and expressiveness to the images in relief with the help of our specific tools – relief, partial gilding and laser matting, creating a few plans, the difference of textures, which was a very difficult artistic task.
Working upon the coins, we did everything, so that they didn’t look like pale reduced copies of Bilibin’s vibrant watercolors, but triggered full-fledged artistic emotions associated with Bilibin’s art in a vicarious manner.
As a result, the coins became works of authorship created on the basis of Bilibin’s paintings. A similar situation could be observed last and one before last century, when engravers created gravures on the basis of famous paintings and followed the laws of the engraving skill instead of pictorial laws”.
The author of the coin obverse is E.V. Kramskaya, an artist of the Design Center of Goznak.
The sculptors are A.A. Dolgopolova (obverse) and A.N. Bessonov (reverse).